John R. DelaneyHP Pavilion dv6-6153clThe HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl gives you an Intel Core i7 processor and AMD switchable graphics for under $1,000, but you don't get features like WiMAX, Bluetooth, and Blu-ray as part of the bargain.

The HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl gives you an Intel Core i7 processor and AMD switchable graphics for under $1,000, but you don't get features like WiMAX, Bluetooth, and Blu-ray as part of the bargain.

The HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl ($999.99 list at Costco) offers a nice blend of power and style in a desktop replacement laptop. Its Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor and generous helping of RAM deliver solid productivity and multimedia performance, and its switchable graphics engine provides enough 3D horsepower to satisfy all but the most demanding gamers. A Blu-ray drive would be nice, as would another hour or two of battery life, but you do get a big, speedy hard drive, Intel's Wireless Display 2.0 (WiDi 2.0) technology, and a two-year warranty.

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Design
As with the HP Pavilion dv6-6113cl ($699.99 list, 3.5 stars), and most of the Pavilion line, the dv6-6153cl features an aluminum lid with smooth, rounded edges and a backlit HP logo. This model is done up in a Steel Gray finish that not only looks cool but is cool to the touch. At 5.7 pounds the laptop outweighs the 5.5-pound Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066A9U ($629.99 list, 4 stars) and the 5.2-pound Samsung RV520-W01, but its weight is still manageable for short hauls.

The keyboard deck sports the same sleek finish as the lid and holds a comfortable full-size island-style keyboard with a dedicated number pad off to the right. The multitouch touchpad and dual mouse buttons sit inside a backlit border and are a pleasure to use, providing smooth cursor control and responsive mouse clicks. There's a fingerprint reader on the lower-right side of the deck and a power switch and Web browser hotkey on the upper left. This is a Beats Audioequipped laptop, using four speakers (two in a speaker bar below the screen and two in the base) and software to deliver a much better audio experience than you normally get from a laptop; but a subwoofer, like the one embedded in the dv7-6123cl ($999.99 list, 3 stars), would give it some much-needed bass. The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 and does a good job of displaying detailed video at 720p, but if you want full HD (1080p) you'll have to splurge for a more expensive model such as the Dell XPS 15z ($1,534 direct, 4 stars), which has a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution screen.

Features
The dv6-6153cl has a nice selection of ports, including two USB 3.0 ports, two headphone jacks, a microphone jack, VGA and HDMI video outputs, an Ethernet jack, and two USB 2.0 ports. This model lacks an eSATA port, however. There's a DVD multi-drive on the right side of the laptop, an SD/MMC card reader slot on the front, and a webcam embedded in the display's upper bezel. Wireless features include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and WiDi 2.0, the latter of which lets you send images to an HDTV or stream your PCs contents onto a display without having to run cables. (Keep in mind you'll need a Netgear Push2TV receiver connected to whatever device you are sending to for this to work.) The dv6-6153cl doesn't come with WiMAX broadband capabilities, nor does it have a Bluetooth radio. The 750GB hard drive is spacious and speedy (it runs at 7,200rpm), and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, Cyberlink YouCam, HP Recovery Manager, HP CoolSense, and HP SimplePass 2011 fingerprint software. It also comes with eBay and Snapfish adware, dozens of games, and a trial version of Norton Internet Securityin other words, bloatware. On the plus side, this model is a Costco exclusive and as such comes with a two-year warranty rather than the typical one-year manufacturer's warranty. Costco members can also take advantage of Costco's Concierge setup and troubleshooting service and generous 90-day return policy.

Performance
With Intel's up-to-date 2GHz Core i7-2630QM processor and 8GB of DDR3 RAM, the dv6-6153cl turned in some impressive scores on our benchmark tests. Its PCMark 7 score of 2,344 was only 35 points behind the dv7-6163us ($899.98 list, 3.5 stars), which uses the same CPU. The dv6-6153cl beat the Core i5powered HP dv6-6123cl by more than 100 points, but couldn't touch the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt)'s ($2,199 direct, 4 stars), which scored 8,315 running Windows 7 in Boot Camp mode. On our CineBench R11.5 test the dv6-6153cl's score of 4.99 topped those of the Dell XPS 15z (3.03), the HP dv6-6163us (4.94), and the Samsung QX411-W01 (2.56), but not that of the MacBook Pro (5.07).

The dv6-6153cl showed some multimedia prowess as well. It completed our Photoshop CS5 test in 3 minutes 52 seconds, which is identical to the result of the dv6-6163us and a few seconds faster than that of the MacBook Pro (3:58); the Dell XPS 15z was the fastest with a score 3:40.The dv6-6153cl's Handbrake time of 1:36 was dead even with that of the HP dv6-6163us and 23 seconds faster than what we saw on the Samsung QX411-W01 (1:59).

Manual switchable graphics on the dv6-6153cl can help conserve power when GPU use is not warranted. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 is used for everyday non-graphics-intensive tasks and the discrete AMD Radeon HD 6770M is used to do the heavy lifting. On our DirectX 10 (DX10) Crysis gaming test the AMD GPU gave us 49.9 frames per second (fps), which is more than adequate for smooth gaming. Its result of 19.6fps on our Lost Planet 2 DX9 test was not quite as impressive when compared with those of the Samsung QX411-W01 (26fps) and XPS 15Z (37fps). But you should enjoy relatively smooth gaming on this laptop as long as you dial down the settings and stick to older, less-demanding titles.

In terms of battery life, the dv6-6153cl's 55Wh battery lasted 5 hours 34 minutes on our MobileMark 2007 test. That pales in comparison to the dv7-6123cl's time of 9 hours 14 minutes and is around an hour shorter than the XPS 15Z's 6:22. Only the MacBook Pro had a shorter battery life (4:40).

The HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl offers a nice balance of components, style, and features for a sub-$1,000 desktop replacement, but it lacks a few necessities that would have put it over the top, such as WiMAX and Bluetooth wireless, a Blu-ray drive, and a high-resolution display. If you require full 1080p and a bit more battery life, CPU power, and graphics prowess, consider the Dell XPS 15z instead.

HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl

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Bottom Line: The HP Pavilion dv6-6153cl gives you an Intel Core i7 processor and AMD switchable graphics for under $1,000, but you don't get features like WiMAX, Bluetooth, and Blu-ray as part of the bargain.

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.
Prior to joining Ziff Davis, John spent six years in retail operations for...
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